Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the Norn Language in Shetland Part I.pdf/105

Rh de, the red horse or mare. In this version the water takes the place of the fire.

as a troll-name, name of a troll-child, may, if not formed simply to rhyme with, be set alongside nyvel, , a small, insignificant person (Aa.), a good-for-nothing (R.).

D. A fourth Fetlar version runs as follows:

Du at rides de red and rins de grey, tell Tivla ta$i$tta (Ta$i$tta) at Vārna va$i$tta (Va$i$tta) is fa’en i’ de fire and brunt her.

, troll-name, is certainly identical with the troll-name “Vatte”, which appears in Danish myths and especially in the myth here treated of the troll who sends a message.

,, troll-name, a further designation of the troll . Possibly derived from *tatti, tatte,, nipple, unless the word has been coined for the purpose of rhyming with. in the following line from : , given me with no other explanation than that it was just what the troll said (Andrew Anderson, Baltasound).

with the giant’s name Vǫrnir or the mythical man’s name Varinn?
 * , daughter of or ? Connected

The troll-child in the horn. (, ?) A troll-wife sat milking her cow in a stall when she heard the following warning cry: Hə‘mpi hōrni hɔi mɩnni kɔ̆m kar$i$l mi mɔ̆gg. Whereupon she cried: “O døl and ! dat is my bairn at is fa’en i’ de fire and is brunt her”, whereupon she quickly went out of the byre, leaving the milk-pail behind.

No doubt, here is a mingling of two different troll myths, because the milker’s answer properly belongs to the story of “The Troll’s Message”, while the lines Himpi,, belong to the tale of “The troll-child in the horn”, being a dialogue between a troll-wife and her child.

A man found a horn, took it home and hung it on the wall. Then a voice was heard outside saying: “Himpi hōrni häi”, or “humpi hōrni hɔu”, whereupon the troll-child in the horn cried: “My midder o’ me” [- - käᶅ··ərəmi·, käᶅ·ərəmi̇̄·], my mother calls me, *(mín móðir) kaller á mik. A variant form is: “Dat is my midder [käᶅɩn] on me”. Both these versions were noted down in Fetlar. It seems as if “ mi ” is another and more corrupt Shetlandic form of “kallar á mik” — by metathesis of ll and r becoming [kar$i$l]. is a -Norn form of “mik”, me, which is found again in the Hildina ballad (“”) and in the rhyme of “The Crow and the Crab” (“”). “mi ”, doubtless with added English “me” as was no longer understood. VII